Marcia Isakson, PhD

Marcia J. Isakson is the Director of the Signal and Information Sciences Laboratory at Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT) with a broad research portfolio for defense applications.

Marcia received her B.S. in engineering physics and mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Hertz Foundation Fellowship and completed a master’s degree in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. CPT Isakson served in the United States Army at Fort Cavazos, Texas as a shop officer and battalion operations officer. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been employed at ARL:UT since 2001 and has served as the principal investigator on over 20 sponsored projects working with the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and ExxonMobil focusing on ocean acoustics and autonomous underwater vehicles sonars. Marcia taught underwater acoustics at the University of Texas from 2009-2017. She is a fellow and former president of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Marcia served on the governing board of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) from 2013-2020. She is currently a member of the Ocean Studies Board at the National Academies for Science, Engineering and Medicine, a member of the US Committee for the UN Ocean Decade of Ocean Science and a member of the 2025-2035 Decadal Survey on Ocean Sciences for the National Science Foundation Committee.

In her off-time, Marcia enjoys running, reading and traveling with her husband of over 30 years. She is a mom and mom-in-law to three wonderful young adults.